This is going to partly be a Laputa/Porco Rosso comparison
This was by no means my first Ghibli, (or Miyazaki) film, and I've seen them at different times in my development as a person, in different stages of life. I—not ten minutes ago—just finished watching Laputa , after having a false start on it years ago, and Laputa felt—aside from being child hero-centered pupal romance—like a rougher first attempt at the same type of film, while being an entirely different kind of story (besides both being obsessed with romanticizing air pirates).
If I had seen Laputa as a young boy, then I might have had some nostalgia for it that would have tinted my view in its favor, but I feel the story came out kind of unclear, like my first watch of Nausicaä. Porco Rosso, however, doesn't seem to have any ambiguity in its plot or message, or—important to how one subjectively experiences it—how it presents its Action and bombast, or emotional moments of pathos.
It excels at the action in ways that others don't, both in its economy of movement (action in the general sense; lack of "shoe leather"), which is something that animation must have a much more conscious awareness of than live action, by virtue of the effort required to create any scene or motion, as well as the ACTION—which it excels at. The escape scene out of the shop and down the canal was easily one of the most engagingly exciting, and perfectly scored action/escape/chase scenes in any film I've seen. Absolutely perfect use of piano and string section. The entire score is perfectly suited to the setting and era, as well as matching the structure and tone of the film, something that Laputa falls short regarding, thanks to its dated electronic score (through it had a banger main theme).
I also found both Fio and Porco's characters and voice actors to be top notch leads—well realized and vibrant. I haven't watched it in English, but I did notice that Jean Reno did Porco in the English dub, and that seems like a great match for Moriyama's performance, but Japan's VO industry, talent, and production/direction standard is both second to none (maybe Poland?), and it's the original language, and I understand just enough Japanese to tell where certain things were excessively localized instead of being accurate translations, so there's really no better way to watch; the expressions hold quite long enough, and are exaggerated enough that there's no need to look at their faces every second unless you're an extremely slow reader—for this film at least.
The message and tone are handled perfectly for me. Porco's a tragic, lone heroic-stoic both trying to live his best life as a daredevil relic of a dying era—a romantic character and a male fantasy of some, even in its tragedy—while also doing right by the community living under fascist wartime oppression. I think I've heard it before, but I definitely feel like Porco is the closest to being a reflection of Miyazaki himself.
And then there's the young upstart near-prodigy, Fio: charming, talented, intelligent, idealistic, and full of hope and gumption. The film was already highly entertaining and exciting, but once the 'Fio of the Women's Workshop' and the village of background characters helmed by Grandpa Piccolo enter the story, it's just delightful.
Miyazaki may not have liked it since he feels it was a mistake not making a children's film, but I think it may be his best structured film, and it's now one of my all time favorite films.
Review by LNeroBlockedParent2023-09-16T07:42:48Z
First viewing; original Japanese
This was by no means my first Ghibli, (or Miyazaki) film, and I've seen them at different times in my development as a person, in different stages of life. I—not ten minutes ago—just finished watching Laputa , after having a false start on it years ago, and Laputa felt—aside from being child hero-centered pupal romance—like a rougher first attempt at the same type of film, while being an entirely different kind of story (besides both being obsessed with romanticizing air pirates).
If I had seen Laputa as a young boy, then I might have had some nostalgia for it that would have tinted my view in its favor, but I feel the story came out kind of unclear, like my first watch of Nausicaä. Porco Rosso, however, doesn't seem to have any ambiguity in its plot or message, or—important to how one subjectively experiences it—how it presents its Action and bombast, or emotional moments of pathos.
It excels at the action in ways that others don't, both in its economy of movement (action in the general sense; lack of "shoe leather"), which is something that animation must have a much more conscious awareness of than live action, by virtue of the effort required to create any scene or motion, as well as the ACTION—which it excels at. The escape scene out of the shop and down the canal was easily one of the most engagingly exciting, and perfectly scored action/escape/chase scenes in any film I've seen. Absolutely perfect use of piano and string section. The entire score is perfectly suited to the setting and era, as well as matching the structure and tone of the film, something that Laputa falls short regarding, thanks to its dated electronic score (through it had a banger main theme).
I also found both Fio and Porco's characters and voice actors to be top notch leads—well realized and vibrant. I haven't watched it in English, but I did notice that Jean Reno did Porco in the English dub, and that seems like a great match for Moriyama's performance, but Japan's VO industry, talent, and production/direction standard is both second to none (maybe Poland?), and it's the original language, and I understand just enough Japanese to tell where certain things were excessively localized instead of being accurate translations, so there's really no better way to watch; the expressions hold quite long enough, and are exaggerated enough that there's no need to look at their faces every second unless you're an extremely slow reader—for this film at least.
The message and tone are handled perfectly for me. Porco's a tragic, lone heroic-stoic both trying to live his best life as a daredevil relic of a dying era—a romantic character and a male fantasy of some, even in its tragedy—while also doing right by the community living under fascist wartime oppression. I think I've heard it before, but I definitely feel like Porco is the closest to being a reflection of Miyazaki himself.
And then there's the young upstart near-prodigy, Fio: charming, talented, intelligent, idealistic, and full of hope and gumption. The film was already highly entertaining and exciting, but once the 'Fio of the Women's Workshop' and the village of background characters helmed by Grandpa Piccolo enter the story, it's just delightful.
Miyazaki may not have liked it since he feels it was a mistake not making a children's film, but I think it may be his best structured film, and it's now one of my all time favorite films.